Christmas Tree's Past and Present

Yes we put up our Christmas tree! We went to a tree farm in Alpin this year. It was different then where we usually go. You walk down all the rows of trees, through the mud and find the prefect tree. Then you go pay and the people ride their little quad with a trailer over to your tree and chop it down right there and take it to your car. It was quite the experience and Sam tried to lose us more then once in the rows of trees.
I wanted to share some of our Christmas tree's that we have had in the past so you could truly appriciate with us the beautiful one that we got this year. This is a picture of Madee and me in front of our 2006 tree! Silly goose, so little too (she was probably eating ornaments then).

This was our tree in 2008
This years tree was the biggest we have ever had in our little family! We were so excited and thought we would share our excitement with all of you!

Christmas wreaths!

We has so much fun making these, we never have before.

Truthfully the pictures don't do them justice.

Sisters making christmas crafts!

This morning was a girls craft day! My sister and I have done this once before where we each picked a craft and made all three of them. It was so great. We decided to do christmas crafts this time and let me tell you it was very fulfilling. We made some really cute things. My sister's are so creative.
This first craft my younger sister Kaytie came up with. She got wooden sleds and we stained them brown an put beautiful red and silver bows on them with silver bells. I would have never come up with the cute bow and bells. Thanks Kaytie so fun.
My older sister chopped some branches off a pine tree and we made wreaths. It was some hard work but we had a great time doing it and they turned out beautiful with some creative ideas from both my sisters. We weaved ribbon through them and had pine cones on them. I will post pictures of the finished product in a minute. My craft was little wooden trees that we painted green and splattered white paint to look like snow. I had a great time and loved hanging out with my sisters.

Knitting Hats

So winter is a upon us and my kids didn't have any hats that fit them right. So I took some of our scrap yarn and got creative. I have been knitting for probably three or more years. Lincoln actually taught me the fine art of knitting. I really enjoy knitting hats because they are short little projects that take me about a day if I am good.
Madee and Sam now have winter hats that fit right. Its nice to see the finished product in use. So if you want to learn how to knit or you already know how and haven't done a project in a while I would definately recommend it. Happy Knitting!

What do you get when there was no nap?

A sleeping child on the floor!

Real Pumpkin or Canned Pumpkin?

I decided to be adventureous and try something I had never done before. Making pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. We actually wanted to know which taste better canned or real pumpkin. So the process was pretty easy I found it on the internet. Cut the pumpkin in half take all the seeds out.
Then you put it in a microwave safe dish covered with a couple inches of water added and cook it for about 15min. If its not soft then cook it 5-15min more. It should come off the skin very easily.
Then we put it in a blender and blended and that is how we got Pumpkin puree. It was easy.
To make this taste test official. I had to make one with the canned pumpkin and one with the real pumpkin. The lighter one was the real pumpkin. Lincoln and I were the only ones who taste tested so I don't know. I liked the real pumpkin better and he still loves the canned pumpkin. So we may never know which one is truly better. One thing I do know Pumpkin bread with real pumpkin is really really good. That has been our pumpkin adventure.

Giving Thanks

My sister Tricia had this really good thanksgiving idea. She told me that you make a tree that has no leaves on it and every day each person in your family writes one thing they are thankful for. Madee really enjoys this daily routine and sometimes insists on writing on more then one leaf a day. Only having done it a few days its really made me focus more on what I am thankful for. We are very blessed! Its wonderful to remember all month long!

Halloween

Yes Sam was trying to ripe the chicken costume off like a muscle man.
Ignore the messy room. Madee was a witch this year. She even practiced her little cackle.
The Olsen's came out trick or treating with us. My niece Annie was a hot dog and the cutiest little weenie you ever did see!
Jared the cowboy, Kaytie the housewife, and Annie the Hot dog. Thanks for trick or treating with us it was fun.

Madee the flying witch with her green wings and Sam the chicken or chicken little as Jared was calling him. Standing beside the pumpkins way too excite to go get some candy!